Flood disaster in US Midwest

'It's going to get ugly': Midwest calls in national guard as flood disaster unfolds
Sixteen states issue flood warnings as waters blamed for 22 deaths in Illinois, while Missouri governor expects record-breaking disaster

the Guardian,

2 January, 2015

Floods have submerged towns, roads, casinos and shopping malls around the south and midwest for more than three days, prompting governors in Illinois and Iowa to call in the national guard.

Sixteen states issued flood warnings covering some eight million people. By Saturday floodwaters had begun to subside in many areas, reopening several important highways, after topping levees in the region late on Friday.

But swollen rivers have yet to crest in southern states, alarming governors in Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi. At Dardanelle, Arkansas, the National Weather Service recorded the Arkansas river at 41ft, nine feet above flood stage.

Missouri governor Jay Nixon said the overflow off the Mississippi would overtake the records set by “the great flood of 1993”, which killed 50 people, broke hundreds of levees and caused thousands to flee their homes.

Nixon visited Eureka and Cape Girardeau in eastern Missouri, where floodwaters caused widespread damage, and announced the federal government had approved his request to declare an emergency to help with the massive cleanup and recovery operation.

The governor described the scale of the flood damage as other worldly. “It’s almost as if you’re living on some other planet,” he said, standing near a growing pile of debris in a park in Eureka, about an hour’s drive west of St Louis on the banks of the Meramec river, which flows into the Mississippi.

“This is just a tiny fraction of the trail of destruction,” the governor told reporters.

In Illinois, governor Bruce Rauner ordered troops into action in the south of the state and declared 12 counties disaster zones. He began touring the waterlogged towns on Friday. Several thousand were evacuated from rural towns such as Pontoon Beach and Alton; 11 levees around the region have failed since flooding began last week. State authorities have blamed the flooding for 22 deaths and four missing people.

In south-western Illinois, the 500 or so people living behind the Len Small levee, which protects the hamlets of Olive Branch, Hodges Park, and Unity along with rural homes, were urged to move to higher ground after the Mississippi began pouring over the barrier.

Alexander County board chairman Chalen Tatum said sandbagging efforts were cut off because of the danger to volunteers. More water is expected to come before the river crests on Sunday.

“It’s going to get ugly,” Tatum said.

The national guard troops were expected to bring water pumps, sandbags, potable water and other supplies to communities overwhelmed by the flooding.

On Friday, search teams in central Illinois found the body of one of two missing teenagers reported missing on Monday, after their pickup truck was pulled into the floodwaters.

Divers concentrated their search in areas where a cellphone was traced. On Friday morning, one of the teens, Devan R Everett, was found in the water near the truck, county coroner Amy Calvert Winans announced.

Iowa governor Terry Branstad ordered national guard soldiers to assist recovery efforts in neighboring Missouri, where they will provide a water purification system. At St Charles, the Missouri river crested more than 10ft above flood stage.

Waters swamped an estimated 150 homes in Arnold, Missouri, near the meeting point of the Mississippi and the Meramec. The river crested there on Thursday at more than 47ft, two feet above the previous record and nine feet above what would be considered a serious flood.

With wastewater plants closed or damaged by the floods – and in one case, sewage pouring into the Mississippi – beer giant Anheuser-Busch has donated nearly 33,000 water cans in Oklahoma and around St Louis.

Hundreds of people were evacuated, including Damon Thorne, 44, and his 60-year-old mother, Linda, who live together in an Arnold mobile home park that washed away. For now, the Thornes are staying in a Red Cross shelter at a Baptist church.

“We’re just basically homeless,” Damon Thorne said. “We have nowhere to go.”

Philip and Jenn Bennett’s home after flood waters receded in their home in Fenton, Missouri on Saturday. Photograph: Kate Munsch/AFP/Getty Images

In south-eastern Missouri, the rising Mississippi damaged about 20 homes in Cape Girardeau and threatened a power substation, though a flood wall protected many of the community’s 40,000 residents. The crest prediction at Cape Girardeau expected on Sunday was upgraded to a foot and a half above the 1993 record.

In nearby Allenville, a town accustomed to floods, roads were cut off by high water. Most of the four dozen residents stayed anyway, using boats to get around.

“They are used to being isolated and cut off, but with this record height, we’re confident some homes will get wet,” Cape Girardeau County emergency management director Richard Knaup said. “We’re just not sure how many.”

Meteorologists expect water levels to increase in Memphis, Tennessee, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, into mid-January, possibly setting records as the rivers wend toward the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency on Thursday, and Mississippi governor Phil Bryant requested a federal disaster declaration from President Obama.